Chak De India

After reading the “All Positive” reviews of Chake De India, I went into the theatre amidst a great hype about the movie. I guess many reviews have said almost everything about the story, sub-plots and various other good things about the movie. I don’t intend to repeat the same and if you find something repetitive – the fault is not mine – after-all the movie is too good.

Once I came out of the cinema hall, I felt no one other than King Khan could have done so much justice to this movie or rather I should say to the character of a deplored hokey player (unfortunate to have born as a Muslim) and a fantastic coach who took the challenge of getting together a bunch of women hockey players and make them win a world cup for India. That’s chake de India for you.

While Lagaan, Chennai 600028, Iqbal were all movies of sports genre – the am-junta could really connect to those movies because it was Cricket – which is all said and done a religion in India. It needs real guts to make a Chak de India with hockey as a background and that too focusing on women’s hockey is something that could have failed miserably – but for tight script and taut execution of the same. Kudos to Yashraj and Shimit Amin, the real captain of Chak De India!

We all would have seen King Khan portraying the roles of villain, hero, guest appearance with his trade- mark stammering and flamboyance. It needs real guts to show King Khan as loser from scene one – that too grim faced, serious looking eyes and pre/hockey-occupied mind through out the movie. And I was totally stumped by the way he fits into this role of Kabir Khan. Where were you Mr. Sharukh all these days? The last time I saw you were in Swades, I guess. National awards committee can surely not neglect this performance. Hats off to Yashraj and Shimit Amin, the real coach of Sharukh Khan!!

Girls in Indian cinema are portrayed as glamour dolls, weeping wife/mother/sister, witches, feminists, social activists and so on. It needs guts NOT have a leading lady in a movie and that too having King Khan call sheets. It needs guts to get a bunch of new faces (or almost new faces) and get them to act in a sports movie and that too play hockey and win a world cup. Fantastic job done by Shimit Amin!!!

All in all, it’s a must watch and I wouldn’t recommend a DVD for this movie. You need to see it in bigger screen – isn’t it a great fun to watch a sports match amongst a cheering crowd rather than sitting alone in front of the TV? Don’t miss the fun and I bet, when you come out of the theatre you will have a sense of pride that Indian movies have truly arrived in the world space!!!!

Kreedom - Review

WARNING: DO NOT GET CONNED BY AJITH INTRODUCTORY SCENE - you may even end up walking out of the theatre by this first scene thinking that it will be yet another mindless flick like Anjaneya or Alwar. Patience most of the time would be rewarding. And Kreedom's first scene (Ajit's fight seq) is a classic example.

Kreedom also clearly indicates that Ajith does have the potential and charisma to make it big - the only thing is he needs to choose scripts like that of kreedom and not get into a self-indulgent mode like that of Alwar or Anjaneya.

Ajith ROCKS in kreedom and there a couple of noteworthy performance that will make you sit up and watch this man - just before interval scene and the climax where he cries out. All this man needs is to submit himself to a good director and not worry about punch dialogies (can also be read as Vijay bitching dialogues) - he can go places and can compete with the likes of Vikhram.

If Rajkiran was a reveletion in Thavamai Thavamirunthu - with kreedom he has joined the league of some of the greatest character artists in Tamil cinema - like Rangarao, Sivaji, Nagesh, Subbiah and so on. Rajkiran is the real hero of this movie and though I'm sure he would surely be a contender for a National award - I only wish that he gets it this time around. Ideally this man should have got the national award for Thavamai Thavamirunthu. What a performance!!!!

Though Trisha's role is insignificant - she is definitely watchable and she looks ravishing in Akkam Pakkam song. Watch out!

Looks like Saranya has become the ONE AND ONLY choice for doing the role of a mother. Her performance is as usual great.

Vivek's comedy is a big let down - though in my opinion in a movie like Kreedom he cannot do much. "Vairam Pancha Kattai" is a typical Vivet comedy and it was well echoed in the theatre as well. Santhaman and Sathyan are the other comedians in Kreedom - and well there is nothing much to say about their role - except that they come as tailor made Hero's friends.

I was told that the villain is a new comer - well all I can say is you can see him in similar roles in future. One more villain added to the already impressive list of Kollywood Villains. Director Vijay needs a special mention here for this character selection.

Music is by G.V Prakash. To sum it up - background music is awesome and songs could have been much better - though I liked the father-son son.

Vijay is the director and apparently Kreedom is the first movie. If my prediction goes right, he would soon become a more sought-after director in the coming days. Has a great potential - especially the way in which the Ajith introductory fight is picturised. At first it will look like there are lot of logic flaws in the introduction scene and you may also feel that you are watching a movie directed by an amateur director. But the scenes that gets unfolded after that is fantastic and more than anything else it is realistic. The only thing that Vijay should be wary of is NOT to fall in trap of star power and rely more on story and screenplay - just like what he did in Kreedom.

Over all Kreedom is a good movie - more realistic & mature - and if you have Ajith in this kind of a movie - what else do you need. I only wish that Ajith learns from this success and never ever attempt to do another crap like Alwar or Anjaneya or Jana. If that becomes true, I'm sure this Kreedom will NOT be his last crown and there will be more to follow in the future.

AAradhe NaaviNAAL Sutta Vadu

Not sure whether you folks read the "so-called" review of Sivaji - The BOSS by Ms. Anuradha Sengupta of CNN-IBN. In a nut-shell she declared Sivaji is the Boss of Crap (I could hear people shouting Ading.....). She also termed the record crowd that thronged the theatres all over the world as "pigs" - without even understanding the context in which THE BOSS uttered the punch line.

And now comes the amazing point and the real power of THE BOSS. Within a couple of hours, there were 965 comments logged in for this post. Anuradha Sengupta wouldn't have imagined this even in her wildest dream. Find below a couple of comments that I found as be-fitting response to the absurd review posted by Anuradha Sengupta.

This one is from Mr. Praveen.
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There is a very simple way to find out who can inlfuence whom. Though there have been a lot of people expressing angst at what has been written by Ms. Anuradha, I would put it down to sheer desperation for publicity that has prompted her to be extremely violent in her blog. The fact is that by doing such things, Ms. Anuradha will not even get that many hate mails as probably Rajini will get love mails for the movie. Also the other thing is that if Ms. Anuradha is indicating that millions of people are pigs, then it is in absolute bad taste to be telling that. Which therefore also gives us the right to call her by any animal's name we wish to and I would think that jackass would be the right terminology. Everything has a purpose and the purpose of particularly these kind of movies are just to entertain. Trying to make any intellectual sense of it is only a waste of energy. The other thing that also happens is that such blogs fan the geographical divide to greater heights with people on other side taking stances. So directly IBNlive is becoming responsible for creating these rifts. Please try and avoid such blogs which have no purpose, no meaning, are so self centered and try to prove that the author's are more human and intellectual than anyone else.
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This one is from Prashanth
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Absolutely disgusting review.How could u review a movie without understanding a word of it?Seems like a review from a deluded and deranged person.There are two ways to earn fame:By working hard or by defaming someone who is famous.Well done! U have earned it by latter means.Mind you,U cant just scribble something just for the heck of it.The 3 hrs I have spent on watching sivaji was far more enjoyable than the 10 minutes I took to read ur review and write this comment.What a waste of precious time reading your Blog!
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This one is from Vignesh - and it is really mind blowing...

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The two wheeler and four wheeler parking Collection for this crap moive has crossed the total Box office collection of Jhoom barabar Jhoom.

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This one is from Krish

You have taken Blog Writting to a different level, is this a shameful attempt to gain publicity by cursing the movie?Agreed, the movie wasn't the best we have ever seen, but still it deserves credit for the technical brilliance and hard work put in by the crew.You would do better to stay away from writing abt movies for some years..if u call this CRAP..i wud call ur blog the WORST EVER PUBLISHED ARTICLE on the internet.may be CNN-IBN deserves the credit for having u on board.
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And this is the BEST ONE

looks like you did'nt manage to get an interview from him... lol.

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PS: The comments are put in as it appears in the blog...

Sivaji - Review

Before it “cools” down – thought of writing a few lines about Sivaji. First of all, the movie is true to the punch dialogue “Pera Kettala Chumma Athiruthu Ella”.

Only a Rajni movie can command such a crowd and I was stunned to see the crowd today morning at Sathyam Cinemas – supposedly an up-market multiplex. People just went to their child-hood days by shouting slogans and that too the crowd was mix of youth and family audience (that too on a first day show). Celebration ALL the way.

Guess most of you would have already read the reviews in various sites – so just to put things in perspective – yes, the first half tends to be a bit sluggish. But IMHO (in my humble opinion) Shankar would have felt that this could have been the only way through which you can have a thoroughly “Rajni-packed” movie in the second half. So if you are a big-time fan of Rajni and if you are unfortunate to see the movie yet, don’t get perturbed by the first half movie reviews. You may tend to agree with me if you see the movie. You need to see the difference of Rajni turning into a Lion’s way in the second half and hence the director had to establish the ground for the same – eventually focusing on Rajni getting his hand dirty in the corrupt system and entertain the audience with Rajni-Vivek comedy. And this is certainly NOT disappointing and Vivek needs a special mention – he SIMPLY ROCKS. Watch out for the punch dialogues that he puts forth on behalf of Rajni.

Suman as Adiseshan is a revelation in Sivaji and he definitely stands up to the stature of Rajni – where he needs to out-smart him and make Rajni vulnerable in front of the corrupt system. The second innings for Suman has taken a jump start with Sivaji and he is sure to go places.

And there is already news that Shreya Saran is paired up with next-gen stars like Vijay and Ajit – and she has strongly made a bid for the Heroine number ONE in Tamil cinema through Sivaji. Shreya Saran as Tamil Selvi looks ravishing and she is out of the world in the song sequences. And the credit should definitely go to Shankar – the man who can show wonders in the screen.

All the other supporting characters like Raghuvaran, Uma Padmanabhan, Patti Manram Raja, Saloman Pappyya, Manivannan, Vadivukkurasi have done a neat job – though the scope is VERY MINIMAL.

Now I guess you would be wondering that I haven’t said anything about THE BOSS.

BOSS comes to the limelight only towards the end of first half and thereafter the movie is completely shouldered and taken at a brisk pace by THE BOSS. And it takes a gigantic leap when Sivaji transforms to MGR. The lion takes a lonely charge against the corrupt system (Singam single’ah vandhu ore kalakkal than). I don’t want to get into the details – otherwise it would spoil the fun of watching THE BOSS. An actor in Rajni comes to the fore-front when he imitates MGR, Sivaji and Kamal - especially when there are hordes of people who earn their bread and butter by imitating Rajni style – you should see our man donning the roles of the legends.

Today I saw a Rajni movie made by Shankar and I guess will go in for the second time to watch the Shankar movie acted by Rajni. Shankar has created a new benchmark in this movie and I will write more on his direction and other areas like music, camera & dialogues when I’m done with the second time (Shankar movie acted by Rajni).

On the whole Sivaji reflects the real Rajni. If we consider his minor political stints and other good things that he tried to do in the last couple of things like interlinking of rivers and so on as a FIRST HALF movie – where he actually had to bite the dust owing to the prevailing system – the expectation from the people (especially the ardent fans) is that he needs to turn into a LION in the coming years where he can actually help cleansing the system in real life – and if that happens I’m sure it will be even more ROCKING than the actual second half of Sivaji – THE BOSS. Will Rajni lend his ears?

Its been ages...

Its been ages since I went to a theatre...I guess the last time I had this long a gap is when I was in +2. Guess it was around 8 months at that point...

Anyways I was able to catch up on a couple of movies via DVD. Saw City of God (CoG) and My Best Friends Wedding.

CoG is a brazilian film - guess Selvaraghavan got thoroughly inspired by this movie - lots of scenes from Pudupettai have striking resemblence to this movie. Its about kids getting into crime - with a taut screenplay. One of the best made movies on crime. If you hate seeing violence in movies - suggesst you keep away from this movie - for it has an attrocious number of gun shots!!!

My Best Friend Wedding is a romantic comedy - with Julia akka in the lead role. This movie is for the ardent fans of Julia Akka (and this includes yours truly). An out and out JR movie.

Oh yes, I attempted to see Cinema Paradisco - an Italian movie - but in vain. Honestly speaking, couldn't manage the first 10 mins of the movie - may be it had to do with my frame of mind when I started. Apparently this one is amongst the classics. Will try to catch up sometimes later and keep you posted.

Waiting for Sivaji - The BOSS. Pera Kettala chumma athiruthu ella!!!!

Mayakannadi-Review

Movies like Autograph and Thavamai Thavamirundhu made me watch Mayakannadi on the first day. First off it would be unfair to compare any director's previous movie(s) with the current one - unless there is a HUGE difference in the quality of the films. So I'm not going to compare Mayakannadi with Autograph or Thavamai Thavamirundhu.

Coming to the story of the movie - it is NOT a new story - guess lots of people have taken this route. The only key difference is in the earlier movies with similar story line, the hero/heroine will become wealthy over a single song. Here Cheran has taken the most pragmatic and realistic path and tried to emphasis on the importance of knowing ones real capacity/ability and do what he/she is good in doing. I cannot stop but think about a similar story being told by Durai in Mugavari (Ajith starrer). But all said & done, it’s the treatment that matters and Mayakannadi and Mugavari are poles apart in this aspect.

One key thing I felt after watching this movie is - the actor in Cheran has gone on an over-indulgent mode - which doesn't gel well. It’s extremely difficult to accept Cheran in the character of Kumar. But on the other side - director Cheran would have thought he needed a guy who doesn't have a major screen presence - so that he can showcase his story in a much better fashion - for had he chosen a "good-looking" hero for this movie the audience would have probably found it difficult to accept the ending. So from a director’s angle I guess it makes sense to have an actor like cheran in the lead role.

Since the over all movie's theme is about the "have-nots" yearning for a "haves" life and the pain they undergo to become rich - the first half of the movie is completely dedicated to showcase those yearnings. This to an extent makes it an over-kill and at times may test your patience - especially if you are used to the regular run-of-the-mill masalas.

It’s the second half that makes it a more captivating movie - as it sends out a strong message to the current generation. Especially there are few scenes that needs to be mentioned here -

• The scene where Kumar (Cheran) decides to go take an illegal job to save his mother
• The sequence where Maheswari (Navya) pleads with her father about her marriage and why she wanted him to provide a chance to Kumar.
• The last 5 minutes where the saloon owner (Radha Ravi) talks about the importance of hard working and why one shouldn't think of becoming a millionaire over night. Though it might sound preachy - it certainly makes sense.

Coming to performance of the actors in Mayakannadi - it just revolves around Kumar (Cheran) and Maheswari (Navya Nayar). Though all the other characters (like Beauty parlor owner Radha Ravi, Maheshwari's father, the drug dealer) have done their job neatly - the movie is a out-an-out Cheran/Navya's show. And there seems to be a terrific on-screen chemistry between Cheran and Navya.

Cheran (as I mentioned earlier) seems to have gone on an over indulgent mode. He some how doesn't fit into today's youngster role. Though I do agree that this character doesn’t need a good looking chap - it would have made a huge sense to put in a guy like Dhanush or Bharath in the lead role - it would have been an apt fit. Cheran as a director is too good - and guess he should start following the message that he gave in this movie - which is to excel in what you are good at - in Cheran's case is direction and certainly not grease paint.

Navya Nayar - what a terrific performance from this lady? She is awesome and just fits into the character of Maheswari like a T. You must watch this movie atleast to see Navya's performance. Any idea how the girls from Kerala put up some grand performance consistently?

Music is by Illayaraja. Songs are average and the maestro has shown his true color in the background score - which is superb.

On the whole, if you discount the dragging first half and if you can put up with Cheran's performance (especially first half), you might well consider that Mayakannadi is certainly not a bad movie. And yes, especially watch it for Navya's out-standing performance. At the box office I'm afraid that this may not be a huge success.

Mayakannadi is for folks who want to encourage good cinema - though it amounts to going through some over-indulgence from the film maker.

Awesome Threesome!!!

A Cindrella Man stepped into A Good Year in The Pursuit of Happyness!!!

Any guess on what the above mentioned line mean? This long weekend I ended up buying three DVDs - Cindrella Man, A Good Year and The pursuit of Happiness - oh no it is Happyness. Saw one movie a day - started with A Good Year followed it up with PoH and Cindrella Man.

If I were to rate the best - it is undoubtedly Cindrella Man followed by PoH and then A Good Year.

Oh no - clicked on the "publish" button even before I could complete the review of each movie. Will follow up with the reviews in the next post. Keep visiting...